Sam Wassink, Metadata Librarian

On July 29, 1878, a group of astronomers from around the country gathered at the S.W. Lomax Farm outside of Fort Worth to study and photograph a total solar eclipse. Reporters from the Fort Worth Daily Democrat wrote that citizens were encouraged to observe the eclipse using a piece of “lightly smoked” glass as a viewing protector and then report their findings. Their results were recorded in several publications.

Leonard B. Waldo of Harvard College (now University) Observatory coordinated the “Fort Worth Eclipse Party” and invited astronomers R. W. Willson, J. K. Rees, W. H. Pulsifer, and F. E. Seagrave to particpate. Waldo then published in 1879, Report of the Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse July 29, 1878, Made at Fort Worth, Texas. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has in its holdings an original copy of the text, which includes a photograph of the five astronomers and their equipment in a plate at the front of the book.(According to the article, History Was Made in the Shade When “Scientists Scooped Old Sol in Pantherville,” also featured in the photo were Dallas photographer Alfred Freeman and vice president of City National Bank, Alfred M. Britton.) The Report contains detailed explanations of their aims in the introduction and reports from each astronomer as individual chapters. The publication concludes with a summary of observations from others who experienced the event and four more plates with images from the eclipse.

By Rachel Union, Library Assistant

The United States Congress first proposed the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1917. This amendment was ratified in January of 1919 and later that year became the subject of federal legislation, called the Volstead Act, prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Congress passed this legislation, which was then vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson and later overridden by Congress in that same year. The era of American history where the federal government banned alcohol (1920-1933) became known as Prohibition. Texas amended the state constitution and instituted “dry laws.”

Originally, limiting the use of grains for the manufacture of alcoholic beverages began during WWI in an attempt to ensure food security in the United States and for other purposes such as the production of medicine and fuel. Post WWI, the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol became the rallying cry for those in the temperance movement who felt that the consumption of alcohol poisoned people and lead to ills in society.